someone here with an AMD FX8350? could need an advice..

[MasterJekkt]

Hello, I was running FSX for a long time on my 3 year old machine now and by the time I installed some addons (REX essentials + Overdrive, PMDG 737NGX, Fs2Crew, GEX, UTX, Aerosoft airports). After all the painful searching for the best tweaks and settings to get the most out of my old Phenom 2 X4 B50 (3,1GHz), I came to the decision to buy a new mainboard and cpu (ASUS Sabertooth 990Fx R2.0 and AMD FX8350 8 core cpu 4.0GHz)
Before I was getting around 10-15fps in the 737NGX at aerosoft ELLX on the ground, graphics sliders at 60% avg, road and airport traffic at 0%, air traffic at 20%.
Ok, built in the new chip, reinstalled Win7, installed FSX and raised the graphics settings by an amount of 5% only to see if there was a major difference. Well not really... at the same airport in the same aircraft (NGX), my frames start at 20 and suddenly they drop down below 15 and even 10 at times, mostly when the aircraft is moving.
Now I'm asking myself, did I something wrong, is there a configuration that's missing or is there something wrong with my new cpu? You can't tell me that a 4 GHz cpu which is capable of handling 8 threads at a time gets slaughtered by a 6 year old software with graphic settings not even at 3/4.

If someone's familiar with this AMD chip I'd be glad if you could give me some advice if possible. And please not such stuff like "should've bought an i7".
I'd be very thankful..

EDIT: my system at the moment (Running FSX on 2 displays at 3840 x 1080)

OS: Win 7 Home 64bit
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth 990Fx R2.0
CPU: AMD FX8350 4.0 GHz
Graphics Card: ASUS EAH 6870 1GB
RAM: 8GB Kingston HyperX 1333MHz (4x 2GB)
PSU: 750W

[supercoup]

Hi:
I have been looking into getting the AMD FX8350 but am a little discouraged by what i have been reading. I run an AMD phenom II 1090T and have no problems running FSX along with many other addons like VoxAtc, FDC, Gamecommander, trackIR5, Accu-Feel V2, 5 monitors, three of them on triple head to go, and many usb controllers and lots of addons. Im using a gigabyte 990fx MB and 2 graphics cards, primary EVGA 560GT 2gig for the triple head to go and an EVGA 9800GT secondary for my other 2 monitors which basically are just for instrument panel and GPS and 16 MB ram. It runs very smooth. no stumble, no studder and most graphics are turned up to 75%. The 1090T clocks at 3.2 g and I dont overclock. The 8350 might not do too much better, even at 4.0G but it cant do worse. It may not be profitable for me to upgrade, but since you have it already, you should be getting decent framerates. I have been into computers and simming for quite some time, not a genious, but made enough mistakes to learn a thing or two. You could have the fastest CPU in the world but it could all bottleneck at the graphics card. I dont know the specs on your card but you might want to look in that direction. It could be the settings, or it could be the card itself. ASUS was prime some years ago when all they made was MBs. Now they're into everything. I had a problem with an ASUS sound card recently that kept causing IRQ conflicts on my system. Its a matter of choice. I stick with EVGA. I have never had a problem with them and they are a graphics card company. The ASUS 990FX is a good board. The 990 chipset is great with AMD. The only thing I see in your system that may be giving you trouble is the Graphics Card. Although FSX is processor hungry, you still need a good graphics card to render all the graphics the program produces and adding on upgraded airports and sceneries makes the card work harder. i see a lot of simmers using Radeon. Check out both sites and google and read up on the different cards. you dont have to get the best one but 2gig cards are not that expensive. Im no computer whiz but with the setup you list, I would look into your graphics card.

[fxsttcb]

You can't tell me that a 4 GHz cpu which is capable of handling 8 threads at a time gets slaughtered by a 6 year old software with graphic settings not even at 3/4.

Yes I can! That 6 year old software was coded for single core processors. They expected 6+GHz by now. Didn't happen.
The service packs and Acceleration add-on help a little in that dept, but, for all intents and purposes, FSX is not highly threaded.

Don't be disappointed. Highly detailed planes in highly detailed environments are going to give lower FPS. It's a fact of life with FSX.
Look at my sig...15-20 FPS is good at Default KJFK and the CS C-130. Lower FPS? Yes, but, still smooth.

Go through the FSX/P3D Software and Hardware stickie, in the FSX forum, and apply the tweaks.
No two systems are the same, so, tweak one at a time and test. It will take some time to find your sweet spot.

Hint: Quit looking at FPS, what you want is smooth...Don

[MasterJekkt]

Hey, thanks for the replies. I've kept experimenting with tweaks to find a good balance between graphics and performance. My frames are now at 15-20 at complex airports (also set road traffic to 20%), at Aerosoft LOWI they almost never drop below 20. Found out that the reason why they dropped so dramatically is because of the infamous mouse bug and I had UTX night lighting on, which caused another 5fps drop at night.

supercoup, I find the FX is a quite good cpu with a decent price, just not for FSX if you're running many complex addons. I checked the load on my graphics card when running FSX in msi afterburner and it is at 100% almost all the time. That's a bad thing I guess?

Max

[fxsttcb]

Unless you really like those cars and trucks, Road Traffic is a BIG performance killer. Mine is 0%!

Running your Graphics load at over 95% constantly can really hurt performance too. The card just can't keep up when it spikes.
Make some trade-offs on your sliders. I go to a detailed airport and adjust for ~90% ave, changing to the most used Views while adjusting.

[supercoup]

fsxttcb is right. your graphics card is at its max. Thats kind of like water going from a 6 inch pipe to a 1 inch pipe. i did away with my enhanced airports. i had installed World airports 3 and although they looked nice, they caused stumbling at times when graphics were high, they also didn't work well with VoxAtc. It seems like the altitudes ASL and runway and taxiway alignments were off somewhat. That said, I found a program that gave me some improvements of airports. Its called Airport Enhancer HDX by Cielosim. It gives me just enough of an enhancement to make me happy and does'nt change any of the topography. Its all adjustable to amounts of enhancements and what enhancements you want to add and it's quite inexpensive. Check it out. Other than that, the FX8350 is a nice processor but like anything else once you start to upgrade, your compelled to keep going. it gets us every time.

[MudWasp47]

I just recently upgraded my 6 year old machine to the same mobo and processor. I'd given up on FSX after a hard drive malfunction when I bought a new hard drive and went with Windows 7. FSX just crashed and crashed. A couple of weeks ago I really missed flying and googled the issue, found a fix.....2 weeks later and I'm upgrading

I don't fly the same addons, but have noticed micro stutters on some areas, specifically Tongass Fjords. I'm running all my sliders to the right except for ground traffic (0), and move the air traffic around depending on my mood and where I'm flying. Generally speaking, I'm a bush pilot.

I've flown in big cities low and slow and seen no stutters on stock FSX with frame rates steady at a cap of 30 or fluctuating between low 30's and high 80's when capped unlimited.

I did skimp in the video card area, Asus 550GTX and have a question. Does FSX recognize and utilize SLI? I could easily buy another, the price is right...

Anyway, good to be flying again with so much more to see and enjoy than I did back in early 2007 when I first loaded FSX onto a new PC

[MasterJekkt]

I just recently upgraded my 6 year old machine to the same mobo and processor. I'd given up on FSX after a hard drive malfunction when I bought a new hard drive and went with Windows 7. FSX just crashed and crashed. A couple of weeks ago I really missed flying and googled the issue, found a fix.....2 weeks later and I'm upgrading

I don't fly the same addons, but have noticed micro stutters on some areas, specifically Tongass Fjords. I'm running all my sliders to the right except for ground traffic (0), and move the air traffic around depending on my mood and where I'm flying. Generally speaking, I'm a bush pilot.

I've flown in big cities low and slow and seen no stutters on stock FSX with frame rates steady at a cap of 30 or fluctuating between low 30's and high 80's when capped unlimited.

I did skimp in the video card area, Asus 550GTX and have a question. Does FSX recognize and utilize SLI? I could easily buy another, the price is right...

Anyway, good to be flying again with so much more to see and enjoy than I did back in early 2007 when I first loaded FSX onto a new PC

Are there any specific adjustments you did in BIOS and/or in the fsx.cfg? Although I'm 50% certain that my graphics card is the bottleneck (since I'm flying with eyefinity at 3968x1080), I have a feeling that my config is not well done.

[fxsttcb]

...I did skimp in the video card area, Asus 550GTX and have a question. Does FSX recognize and utilize SLI? I could easily buy another, the price is right...

SLI and Crossfire don't scale well with FSX and are usually only recommended for multiple monitor use.
Test your GPU to verify that it is indeed being overtaxed. Find the repeatable conditions that create the stuttering, and test it.
GPUz will monitor your graphics card and log it if you want.
Very useful to tell if your Video card is being pushed near it's limit...Don

[MudWasp47]

MasterJekkt, yeah I found a helpfull CFG guide at AVSim fsx_guide_1 pdf
I think it was in a sticky thread at the top of the hardware forum.


Software & Hardware Guide for FSX
Version 1.0.2
Date of Issue: February 5, 2013
Compiled by Paul Johnson,
AVSIM Hardware and Operating Systems Forums Manager



fxsttcb, the micro stutters only happen in Tongass Fjords. Mabe there is a patch or something that will help as I'm running an unpatched boxed version. Thanks for the GPUZ link! I'll try it out

Oh, a new 23" monitor is heading my way. Currently in use is a BENQ flatscreen that is a handme down from my wife's employment. In mid December my old 21" crt samsung finally died. It lasted 11+ years...LOL... I may shead a tear when it's scrapped during the local junk electronics day at the township recycling center. We had some good times together...